Is it just me or does it seem like everyone’s sick right now?
It’s been a revolving door of illness over here lately. We’re going on a month of at least one person sick in our house. And it’s barely October…
It feels like COVID all over again, but worse. This cold hit my kids and me hard.
One of my daughters missed a full week of school and had a 99.6 temperature for 4 days.
I took her to the pediatrician thinking she must have strep — something bacterial that would explain the fever that wouldn’t kick.
But she tested negative.
The pediatrician said it’s just a random virus.
I told her how odd it seemed for her to have this consistent low grade fever like her body just couldn’t kick it.
And she said they’re seeing that a lot lately too.
Why Everyone’s Sick Right Now
It’s a post COVID thing they’ve noticed.
Either because these cold viruses have mutated, or the effect distancing, masking, sanitizing has had on the immune system.
“Probably both,” she said.
I’ve heard the same thing from friends who work in hospitals and pediatric practices.
Children’s hospitals are out of beds.
And kids are being admitted with what’s basically a common cold.
Then yesterday I came across this article that puts it all together.
The summary: “More children and young people are being hospitalized with colds and respiratory problems than ever after the Covid pandemic, official data suggests.”
The article quotes Dr. Scott Roberts, a medical director at Yale University. He says, “Lockdowns resulted in two years where children may not have been exposed to common respiratory viruses.”
“There are two implications to this. First the gap gives time for the viruses to mutate even further to cause more severe disease.
And second whatever immunity was built up to those viruses’ it will have waned making the immune response now much less potent.”
We’re seeing that less potent immune response now with these colds that are more severe than they should be and longer lasting low grade fevers.
So what are we to make of all of this?
First, I think most importantly we must acknowledge that this is a thing, especially going into cold and flu season.
I can only imagine… if it seems like everyone’s sick right now… we could be in for it.
We’re already hearing how bad the flu is expected to be this year. All of this we’re talking about here likely has a lot to do with why.
I said it through the pandemic, the silver lining of it all has to be that we come out on the other side with a better understanding of viruses, immunity, and how to get and stay healthy.
The immune system is a learned system and it learns through exposure.
That’s why this fallout on the other side is affecting kids more — just like their little minds, their immune systems are at a critical stage of learning.
I do believe that we’ll all bounce back. The human body is incredibly adaptable and resilient.
This will be a blip.
IF we learn from it.
My biggest fear is that we won’t and there’s just going to be another pandemic… but I can’t go there today.
Today I’m staying focused on getting us all well and getting my two back to school tomorrow (God willing!).
And I want to leave you with some tools too.
I’ve written a few posts about what I do to both prevent and recover quickly from a cold. I’ll link those below.
- Eight Ways to Help You Stay Healthy and Not Get Sick This Cold and Flu Season
- What to Eat to Help Speed Up Recovery from a Virus (Part I)
- What to do to Speed Recovery from a Virus (Part II)
*Note: the last two links were written about COVID but the practices in them can help against any and all viruses.
Sending you love and all the healing vibes I have left….
Stay well!
P.S. I work with folks one-on-one in my functional medicine health coaching practice to help them get to the root of what’s causing their symptoms so they can feel like themselves again. Ready to get started? Grab a spot on my calendar to chat with me about it here.
